A solicitor hired his lover as a hit man to murder his business partner and cash in on a £1.5m assurance payout, a court heard.

Debt-ridden John Cort had Vina Patel killed to cover his debts and fund his lavish lifestyle, according to prosecutors.

Mrs Patel's body was found by her husband and daughter at the bottom of a flight of stairs at the offices she shared with Cort in Blackbird Road, Leicester, on January 15, 2009.

She had suffered a broken neck and her body and face showed marks consistent with her having been grabbed, held and suffocated.

Yesterday Cort (54), of Rutland Street, Leicester, and Brian Farrell (37), of Queensborough Terrace, west London, appeared at Nottingham Crown Court. They both deny murder.

Prosecutor Timothy Spencer QC said the killing had been orchestrated for money.

Mr Spencer said: "There is evidence that Brian Farrell is money orientated and is attracted by the trappings of wealth.

"There is evidence that John Cort provided him with money.

"It becomes clear that the killing of Vina Patel was a contract killing, a killing for money, though I doubt the men will ever reveal the precise terms of that contract or indeed the price Brian Farrell was to be paid."

Mr Spencer said the plot revolved around a life assurance policy which Cort and Mrs Patel had taken out to cover one another and the business financially if either died.

He said in the weeks before her death, the policy had been changed to increase the potential payout from £500,000 to £1.5m.

Farrell – who told police Cort had paid him for sex – had made a financial deal with Cort to kill Patel.

On the day she died, Mrs Patel had two appointments in her diary.

One was with former Leicester Tigers and England rugby player Leon Lloyd. The second mysterious appointment at 5.45pm was with someone called "Khan".

The court heard she would normally have left the office by that time.

Mr Spencer said the appointment was "a fiction".

While Mrs Patel met with Mr Lloyd at her first floor office, Cort was downstairs with an estate agent, Lyndon Oldham.

Mr Spencer alleged that at some point Cort asked Mr Oldham to go and wait for him in a pub across the road "because he had things to sort out".

At about 6pm, Mrs Patel showed Mr Lloyd out of the building. There was no sign of Khan.

Mr Spencer said: "Both Farrell and Cort were waiting for that moment when Mrs Patel was alone."

The jury was shown documents relating to Corts & Co's finances.

They showed the legal firm, of which Mrs Patel was a joint partner, had at the end of its financial year in September 2007 recorded a net profit of £224,214.

However, at the end of the next financial year that had dropped to £75,327.

During 2008, Cort had taken out loans totalling £171,000 to put into the company – but the prosecution said he had taken out more than £100,000 to furnish his expensive lifestyle.

By September 2008, Cort had agreed with creditors a repayment schedule on the loans at £670 per month.

It was at about this time, said Mr Spencer, that Cort "put about a scare that he was seriously ill" which resulted in he and Mrs Patel looking into raising the insurance cover.

Both partners were covered at that point by the £500,000 policy – an "unremarkable business practice", according to Mr Spencer.

Cort allegedly told insurers that it was Mrs Patel who was keen for the change and that she wanted it completed before she flew to India on a holiday.

Mr Spencer said the rush by Cort to implement change was "no coincidence – as a month later Mrs Patel was dead."

He said: "For a substantial period of time, John Cort's financial affairs had been out of control and by January 2009 he was out of control."

He showed evidence of Cort having begun a process to claim the £1.5m.

Mr Spencer also produced documents showing Cort had taken out leases on flats and apartments in exclusive areas of London, which he alleged were used to house Cort's numerous girlfriends.

Mr Spencer said: "He lived a life he could not afford.

"He enjoyed expensive hotels, restaurants and the company of women he paid to keep."

Mrs Patel's body was discovered at about 8.10pm on January 15 by her daughter Anisha and her husband Surendra, who had gone to investigate after she had not arrived to pick Anisha up from work and failed to answer her mobile and office phone.

As well as the injuries noted during the post-mortem examination, blue fibres were found around her nostrils, mouth and in her hair.

The prosecution said these were consistent with its allegation that she was suffocated.

The trial continues.